Four Injured, Palestine TV Reporters Kidnapped In Kufur Qaddoum

Saturday June 22, 2013 07:37 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC

The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Kufur Qaddoum village, near the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, reported Frida [June 21, 2013] that dozens of Israeli soldiers attacked the weekly nonviolent protest, wounding four residents, and kidnapped reporters of the official Palestine TV.

Image By The Popular Committee Against The Wall - Kufur Qaddoum

The Committee said that the soldiers violently attacked and beat Ahmad Shawar, cameraman Bashar Nazzal, working for the Palestinian TV, confiscated their cameras, and threw the rest of their equipment in the trash.

A spokesperson of the Israeli army claimed that the kidnapped journalists “attacked the soldiers”, and that they have been transferred to an interrogation facility.

Morad Shteiwy, coordinator of the Popular Committee in the village, has reported that the army surrounded the village since early morning hours Friday, and invaded it I an attempt to prevent the residents from holding their weekly protest against the illegal Annexation Wall and settlements.

“The large number of soldiers deployed in the village could not prevent the determined residents from holding their protest”, Shteiwy said, “the soldiers violently attacked the protesters and fired dozens of gas bombs, concussion grenades, and rubber-coated metal bullets”.

He further said that resident Aqel Mahmoud Shteiwy, 25, was shot by a rubber-coated bullet in his hand, and that one of his fingers was amputated, and added that resident Yousef Mustafa Shteiwy, 21, was shot in the chest, Bassam Ayyoub Shteiwy, 26, was shot in the back and Bashar Mahmoud Shteiwy, 22, was shot in the abdomen.

Also on Friday, soldiers used tear gas, chemical water and rubber-coated steel bullets to attack the weekly protests at the villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, where residents and their international and Israeli supporters, managed to reach the wall; two protests were injured and many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.

In Bil’in, gas bombs fired by Israeli troops cased fire that damaged olive trees owned by local farmers. Soldiers also fired tear gas at residents who tried to put off the fire.

At the nearby village of al Nabi Saleh, Israeli soldiers attacked the villagers and their supporters before leaving the village.

Dozens of soldiers stormed the village and fire gas bombs into resident homes. Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.

In the al Ma’sara village, near Bethlehem, dozens of soldiers stopped the villagers and their supporters at village entrance then forced them back using rifle-buts and batons to bush people back, no injuries were reported.